Paradigm (9781909490406) Read Online Free PDF Page A

leave some here and come back for them? Maybe you want to fetch your mother to help?’
    â€˜No,’ she said. ‘I’ll manage.’ She pulled the thin rings of plastic high up her arms, handles biting into her skin in raised pink circles. Four bags per arm, Alice hooked her hands together at her skinny waist and shuffled her body forward. She inched towards the flats, eyes fixed on the bottle-green door and teeth clenched together, bone-hard and determined. It was just as she got inside the sheltered porch that the real rain started.
    It was 8:35 a.m. on 17 th September, 2015.
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    F rom the porch , it took two runs to get all of the shopping back into the flat. A tall man, hands covered in oil and smelling of smoke, got in with her and stood very close as the doors pulled together. Alice pushed the shopping forward with her legs, forming a barrier between them. The man grinned, gappy-toothed, and as the doors opened at his floor, he bent down and fished into one of the shopping bags. He picked out a bar of chocolate.
    â€˜Cheers,’ he said and slipped onto the sixth floor, flashing broken teeth in a sneered black smile as he went. Alice shivered and pulled the shopping close to her as the lift creaked upwards.
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    W hen she got back to the flat, Alice found her mother sitting on the stained sofa looking out at the rain.
    â€˜Why aren’t you at school?’ she said, turning around. Her skin looked worn and sleepy and above her eye was the metallic shine of a new bruise.
    Alice felt a pain hit her somewhere in the chest. ‘I don’t feel well,’ she said. ‘It’s the rain.’ Her mother held out her hand and Alice went over to her. Thick wheals lashed her arms where she’d been carrying the bags. The sick feeling came lurching back.
    â€˜Did you take my money?’ said her mother. ‘That’s my money.’
    Alice hesitated then nodded, pushing her hands into her pockets.
    â€˜I did the shopping, Ma, all of it,’ she said. ‘We don’t need to go out today; you can rest. Get some sleep.’ Alice’s mother looked more relieved than annoyed and she put her arms around Alice.
    â€˜Don’t take my money without asking—I told you. Some of that was for the electric people.’ The rain drummed heavy on the window outside and they sat there together, watching as it came down in torrents. It beat harder and faster until the window front was a stream of water and they couldn’t see anything more than the slight outline of the barrier on the balcony. The rhythmic chord strummed with enough regularity that eventually they both fell asleep on the sofa.
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    A s she drifted in and out of consciousness, Alice heard the pattering of rain and her mother moving around the flat, lifting and carrying things. She dreamed of waterfalls and swimming pools and being deep inside a submarine watching fish writhe past in cloudy portholes in giant tidal streams. She wanted to get up and help her mother but each time she opened her eyes, the sickness rose up from her stomach. She turned over and looked at the swirls in the carpet but that made her feel even worse. She closed her eyes again and put a cool palm on her own forehead that seethed red and angry. Through the red-blackness of her eyelids she could see shapes and crowds of people dancing across the wall, through their front room and out towards the balcony. Outside there were lights and bangs like fireworks.
    â€˜What’s going on?’ said Alice, as shapes danced across the wall. She tried to lift her hand up to point at the wall, but it continued to hang limply by her side.
    â€˜It’s the rain,’ said her mother. ‘It’s making people crazy.’
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    W hen Alice awoke , the sky was dark and the banging of the rain had eased into a soft patter against the window. She propped herself up against the pillows and stretched her legs out flat. They ached and her head